Monday, March 01, 2010

Italy is first country to set fines for positive drug tests

Italy
has become the first country to fine athletes for doping. The Comitato Olimpico
Nazionale Italiano (CONI) made all 109 athletes and officials wishing to
participate at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics sign an agreement to pay
€100,000 if they report a positive drug test.

Hannover 96 challenges '50+1' Bundesliga club ownership rule

German
1.Bundesliga club Hannover 96 is challenging paragraph 8.2 of the Deutsche
Fußball Liga (DFL) Statutes, which prevents outside investors from taking a
majority stake in a 1 or 2 Bundesliga club, in the Permanent Court of
Arbitration.

HMRC queries football image rights deals

Her
Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is in discussion with the FA Premier
League (FAPL) about whether clubs are paying salary through image rights
companies set up by players, as image rights are taxed at a lower rate than
income. It is understood that HMRC suspects that such deals are being used to
attract foreign players put off by UK tax rates.

Finances: Regulating club financial expenditure to avoid debt

European
football's regulator, UEFA, has recently announced Financial Fair Play
proposals, designed to prevent clubs spending more than they earn. Rod Findlay,
a Partner with McDaniel & Co. Solicitors and the former in-house lawyer at
England's Rugby Football League, examines UEFA's current financial regulations
and its new proposals and compares them with financial regulation systems used
by other sports. He discusses the limits of financial regulation proposals and
questions whether or not they will achieve their aims.

Comment: SportAccord's Doping-Free Sport Unit (DFSU)

In
2009, The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency
provided financial assistance to SportAccord to develop doping support services
to assist SportAccord's members, international sporting federations. Françoise
Dagouret, Manager of SportAccord's Doping-Free Sport Unit, details its work to
date.

Spain: Changes to taxation: impact on professional sport

The
Spanish government has recently limited an exemption allowing foreign workers
to pay a lower level of income tax to those earning under €600,000 per annum.
Bartolomé Sánchez, an Associate with Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira, examines
difficulties with the new regime, and explains how it will create issues for
sport and professional athletes, especially footballers.

Comment: An alternative to the IOC's gender testing policy

The
Coalition of Athletes for Inclusion in Sport has recently provided the
International Olympic Committee with an alternative to its Gender Policy.
Kristen Worley, Co-Founder of the Coalition, explains why an alternative is
needed as well as its proposed alternative.

Boxing: Freedom of religion and rules on safety

The
Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) recently reversed its decision to
exempt Sikh boxers from the rule requiring amateur boxers to be clean shaven
for competitions. Religious groups contend that the arguments put forward by
the ABAE are not valid, asserting that the decision discriminates against
boxers who have beards because of religious beliefs. Sean Cottrell, Co-Editor
of Lawinsport.com and a former amateur boxer, examines whether the decision to
require boxers to be clean shaven for safety reasons constitutes a restriction
on freedom of religion.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Reform needed to tackle doping in sport

Reform is needed if
anti-doping authorities are to effectively tackle doping, said anti-doping
experts at Tackling
Doping in Sport on 24 February,
organised by World Sports
Law Report and hosted by sports
lawyers HammondsLLP. “Athletes
are receiving six month bans for doping offences because sporting federations
are afraid that Article 45 [of the IOC
Charter] could be challenged”, said Travis Tygart, Chief Executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency. “We’ve got to get mad
and return the playing field to clean athletes. We should be aggressive, but
also be fair.”

Article 45 of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter prevents athletes convicted of a
doping offence from participating in the next edition of the Olympic Games. Antonio Rigozzi, a
Partner with Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, highlighted that legal challenges to the
Article are “inevitable, and will most likely be successful”.

“The Hardy case at the Court
of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] will be an important test”, continued Tygart,
referring to the 12 March hearing of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA)
appeal for an extension of American swimmer Jessica Hardy’s one-year ban for
testing positive for a banned anabolic agent. WADA is seeking that Hardy should
be banned for two years and declared ineligible for the London 2012 Olympics.

Reform of the WADA’s Athletes
Commission was also seen as essential. “It exists purely to provide soundbites
to the Executive Board of WADA”, said Ian Smith, Legal Director of the Professional Cricketers’ Association. “It
has no power and it is useless – it is not elected”. UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said that efforts were
being made to reform athlete commissions at a national level first.

Andy Parkinson, Chief
Executive of UKAD, said that more needed to be done to break down the “wall of
silence” put up by the clean athlete community when questioned about who is
using drugs. “Sophisticated networks are out there geared towards cheating in
sport”, said Parkinson, who has been talking to Crimestoppers about how they
deal with anonymous tip-offs. “Our focus is now on intelligence. Since 14
December, 75% of doping charges have been as a result of indirect
intelligence.” However, he warned about the dangers of laying down anti-doping
legislation – an option currently being considered by the UK government. “There
needs to be a significant discussion about the impact. I would suggest that we
perhaps don’t need a legislative regime that would impact 60 million people
without first considering those who will have to enforce it.”

Pat McQuaid, President of the
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), presented
his view that the number of admissions to doping since 2007 represented a
turnaround for elite cycling’s “deeply entrenched culture of cheating”.

Mike Earl, Doping Control
Programme Manager for the Football Association
(FA), highlighted the difficulties that differences between out-of-competition
testing and in-competition testing could create, in a talk about social drugs.
Currently, WADA’s prohibited list prevents the taking of cannabis, ecstasy and
cocaine in competition, but does not prevent it out of competition. “Surely it
is better to say ‘you just can’t take this stuff’?”, he said.

Delegates said that they were
impressed with the high concentration of key decision makers at the event,
which included seven international sporting federations (such as the IRB, ITF,
FEI…), 12 national sporting associations (FA, RFU, BOA, BHA…) and governmental
organisations such as the Irish Sports Council, Malta Sports Council and more.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Interested in the laws and rights of world sport?

Play the Game is a non-profit organisation aiming
to strengthen democracy and transparency in the international world of sport.
Ourgoal is to ensure an independent
fact-based debate and to draw a many-sided picture of sport providing
journalists, researchers and political leaders with inspiration to explore
cultural, political and legal aspects of sport. For more information, click here to visit our internet site and
sign up for the free newsletter.

The conference is designed to address
recent developments in the fight against doping, such as the use of athlete
biological passports and whether blood profiling alone can be used to convict
an athlete of doping, such as in the case of Claudia
Pechstein. The conference will also discuss the use of intelligence in the
fight against doping, such as the recent alliance
between Canadian border police and the International Olympic Committee for the
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Doping and privacy will also be another
major topic, especially the World Anti-Doping Agency’s regulations
which equate three failures to report your whereabouts with a doping violation.

London’s 2012 anti-doping strategy will be
debated, as will whether a distinction needs to be made within anti-doping
regulations between performance-enhancing and recreational drugs. For a full
programme, click here.

As might be expected, delegate spaces for
such a detailed programme are selling out fast. For more information on
attending, contact Erika
Joyce on +44 (0)20 7012 1383.

Monday, January 18, 2010

UK Bill to criminalise doping and allow police drug searches

Lord
Moynihan will shortly introduce a Bill into Parliament that, if passed, will
criminalise the supply of performance-enhancing drugs to sport. It will also
allow police to obtain a warrant from a court to search London 2012 athlete
rooms if they believe doping is taking place.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

New gambling licence requirements could impact UK sports sponsorship

The
UK government's plan to require all overseas-based gambling operators to be
licensed by the Gambling Commission could affect sports sponsorship and
advertising, as it will require European gambling advertisers to obtain a
licence and contribute towards regulatory costs.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

FIA to appeal Briatore ban annulment

The
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) will appeal against the Paris
Tribunal de Grande Instance's (TGI) decision to annul the FIA's life ban on
Renault Formula One (F1) team principal Flavio Briatore. 'The President of the
FIA has consulted the FIA Senate and the FIA's lawyers about the decision of
the [TGI] of Paris of 5 January', read an 11 January statement. 'It was
unanimously agreed that an appeal would be prepared'.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Opinion: FIFA's Early Warning System: protecting the integrity of sport

Sport
is often said to be the most beautiful pastime in the world and betting on
events adds an even greater thrill to the sporting experience. The majority of
those who place bets do so because of their enjoyment of sport and simply wish
to chance their luck. However, there is a minority who misappropriate sport and
this has hugely damaging consequences.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

A
number of ex-athletes have recently made claims about how they flouted their
sport's regulations while they were competing. Simon Grove and Joseph Parks, of
IPS Law LLP, examine the ability of sporting bodies to sanction ex-athletes and
explore how the ability of national associations and international federations
to sanction ex-athletes can often differ.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Doping: Trainers, negligence and antidoping rules

The
Court of Arbitration for Sport recently overturned a two-year ban imposed on
the trainer of an athlete for being negligent in his coaching duties due to
lack of evidence of involvement in any doping violation, after the athlete was
found to have committed a doping violation. Adam Finlay, a Solicitor with
McCann FitzGerald Solicitors, examines how the World Anti-Doping Code applies
to athlete support personnel and discusses the ambiguity over the degree of
fault necessary on the part of athlete support personnel to constitute a doping
violation.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Doping: NFL: federal exemption for drug rules to trump State law

The
National Football League's (NFL) suspension of five players last year for using
a diuretic has led to a prolonged series of legal battles and a Congressional
hearing, where the NFL asked Congress to pass a law allowing its performance
enhancing drug testing policies to trump State laws. Gabe Feldman, Director of
the Tulane Sports Law Program, discusses the developments that led to the
hearing and why he believes that the special federal legislation for the NFL is
unwarranted at this point.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Arbitration: CAS: analysis of revised rules of procedure

The
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will introduce new procedural rules and a
new Code of Sports-related Arbitration from 1 January 2010. Ian Blackshaw, a
member of the CAS, explains the changes introduced by the new rules.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Sponsorship: Affirmation of contract: Force India v Etihad

The
High Court recently ruled that Etihad had waived its contractual right to
terminate its sponsorship of the Force India Formula One team, due to continued
ignorance of breaches of the agreement. Patrick Rennie, a Trainee Solicitor
with Bird & Bird LLP, examines the reasons behind the decision and the
lessons it holds for contracting parties.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.

Cheating: Feigning of blood injuries in rugby union: implications

Harlequins
has been fined and its coach, Dean Richards, suspended for feigning a blood
injury in order to allow a specialist drop-kicker to return to the field of
play during the final few minutes of a Heineken Cup rugby union quarter-final.
Stuart Cutting, Head of the sports law unit at Wright Hassall Solicitors,
examines the action taken by rugby union authorities, the implications for the
game and for wider sport.

To
read the full article in the January edition of World Sports Law Report, click here.